phelps

actually he's from Ukraine and he's not so young to have competed at the junior Europeans that recently (he's already 25 years old)... no idea about his junior record, but he represented Ukraine until 2015 (he missed out on the final in the 400 IM for them in London), then he switched to AZE... tbh, I guess this late improvement after changing to that specific Nation is at least suspect (but don't be bothered by this last sentence...it's surely me...I just can't trust AZE anymore for anything)...

as if 5 seconds were nothing... the Chinese girls we all know that today are there and tomorrow they could be on the wada black list... Titmus...for the Australian standards she's already on top of her game, meanwhile Quadarella, for the Italian standards, is still very young and improving fast (actually this was only her second global event and she improved her PB by 5 seconds... only Kesely could be a real threat...but I think she's gonna be more of a new Risztov/Kapas than a new Hosszu...knowing the Hungarian system, she's already been pushed to her absolute limits in training...if she doesn't leave HUN for another Country (like Hosszu), she's gonna be totally burnt out by Tokyo... and as I already wrote, I'm one of Simona's biggest fans...therefore I really hope she's gonna have a bright future, even more than people watching her races with a more "relaxed" approach...

sure... but still, if there are some races with a clear favourite, those are Sjostrom's 100 Fly and Peaty's 100 Breast...

I don't know what smiley is better in this case? or or maybe even

not that there was any doubt about it before the start of the championship...

the big baby is still growing... let's see if tomorrow he can make a name for himself...

the omnium needs to be cancelled... they should have the points race and the elimination race as they stand in the program (and the men's madison, of course...the girls maybe in the future, right now they need to make a lot more experience on that race before they should be allowed to ride it at the global events, imho)...and stop.

well, their coach might even have a different idea...

great, great swim by Simona... Ledecky is still untouchable, but the silver medal in Tokyo now is really a chance... p.s. she swam with negative split... meanwhile, Peaty!!!!! he's a monster...he's not human!

of course she was joking... people could see all of her teeth while she was speaking with our national tv interviewer...

luckily it didn't happen... so, there's a good chance we see Pellegrini swimming the anchor leg in tonight's final (she said it's a global plot against her...everybody wants to force her to swim again that distance)...

whenever I hear/read the word "mixed" I get urticaria...

when you're not among the strongest teams entering an event, you always need some luck/good draw... they've been able to take advantage of the other teams' mistakes (England was supposed to dominate their group in the 1st stage and be where Ireland is now, but they didn't...so, we have this nice Irish tale)... however, I also think they won't be among the top 4 in Tokyo...actually, I think they won't even qualify for the Olympics (where I guess there will be only 4, max 5 European teams -NED, GER, GBR, BEL and maybe ESP- no ITA nor IRL, I fear)...

congrats to Ireland...great achievement for them... I think we can even name it a Cinderella story...

not generally speaking, but they have good tradition in 470 class, especially on the women's side... Ai Kondo is a longtime medal contender in this class and I had no doubt she would get even better now that she has the chance to sail the Olympic regatta at home (probably Tokyo 2020 will be her last outing in this class, too)... the male crew is more a surprise at this level, but not a Cinderella story like Ireland at the hockey world cup, just to make an example...

no, it's just lack of time... if someone wants to make up for that, it's more than welcome... otherwise, you have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, when I have more time and can update this thread with all the medallists (women and men's FS included)...

and finally we're playing with just one non-Italian born girl (which is amazing, based on how low is the total number of girls playing softball in our Country)... however, we were not counting on those 2 wins against CAN and AUS (even if now we can say that we just wasted 2 very big chances to get some unexpected glory)... our target is to beat CHN and VEN and make the top 4 in the preliminary group... now let's see if our girls can perform when it really matters...

boom!!! Danil Lysenko "Neutral Status" revoked for not showing up at out-of-competition tests... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/45060111 I can't believe that...they just can't stay out of troubles...

yes, they have a very close PB... still, I hope that Quadarella can improve by a good margin tomorrow (and then what comes out of that would be OK in any case)...

the high school results of each student are evaluated with a final score (votes is not the correct word in English, it's just the direct translation of "voto/voti", but I shouldn't have used that word)... and she got 100 out of 100... of course that score is based on the results of your previous career in that kind of school and of the scores of the various steps of the final examination (3 written tasks and the final oral coversation about all the disciplines you've studied in the last year)...

I mean she has had particularly good results also in her studies...2 months ago she had the maximum votes in her final examination at the end of her high school career... p.s. and Condorelli...I'm sure he'll get better than he was in Rio (and there, he got 4th in the 100m free)... Martinenghi, instead, has really big troubles with his injury...I hope he will not have his career compromised by that...

don't you think that Romanchuk has any chance in the longer distances?

well, I'm not blaming her for being happy (it's her 1st long course international medal, she's a 10-star student, she's a nice girl)... I'm blaming coaches and media here in Italy who totally forgot that she did better than today just 1 month ago (which is not a good thing, it's just another case when Italian athletes don't give their best in the most important race of the year)... so, it's a good result for her, but still somehow disappointing (and nobody seems to express this kind of feeling here)... p.s. she's also supposed to be our strongest woman after Pellegrini's era, so, it's quite normal to have high expectations about her...

2 silver medal for Italy today, but I can't be satisfied with that...Cusinato didn't improve from the Settecolli meet last month and therefore she missed out on gold, rather than winning silver (in Italy all the people are happy, but to me that's only losing mentality)... and the men's relay definitely underperformed for 3 legs out of 4...only the anchor leg by Miressi (46.99 for him) is a flesh of light in today's action... tomorrow Paltrinieri will start his campaign and in the afternoon we'll see if Quadarella is really ready to improve herself by a lot and become the no.2 in the world on the 800m free (I'm a big fan of her...and I hope that sooner or later she's gonna be the fastest woman in the world in the middle distance races behind the untouchable Ledecky...but I'm not sure she's already that good, probably not yet)...

not a good day for Italy in Aarhus...in the 470 class, Ferrari & Calabrò have gone down to the 13th place among the men, meanwhile the girls are lost in the rankings Coccoluto in the men's Laser has won a race, but then he has had only an 18th place in the second one... no comment on the performances in the other 2 classes racing today... as I feared before the start of this event, I guess that only Nacra and RS:X would eventually give us some satisfaction...